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Editorials

Aleppo’s liberation victory for Resistance front

Zafar Bangash

While the Syrian government and army can rightly claim credit for the liberation of Aleppo, it did not come about without the sacrifices of Hizbullah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

While Western officials and corporate media outlets indulged in their customary hypocritical concern about civilians in eastern Aleppo, the ground reality had shifted dramatically. The Western-backed and Saudi/Qatari-financed terrorists have been routed. There is no other way to describe it. And their rout came as a result of not merely the efforts of the Syrian army but the massive sacrifices of Hizbullah and Iranian fighters. True, Russian bombing raids softened the terrorist strongholds but aerial assaults alone can affect only about 10% of the ground situation. There have to be boots on the ground to bring about meaningful change. This is where the Hizbullah and Iranian fighters were instrumental. The Syrian army on its own could not have achieved this feat even if President Bashar al-Asad was full of praise for his army. The Syrian army should be credited for not cracking under very difficult circumstances but the reality is that it is stretched very thin. The takfiris’ re-occupation of Palmyra while they were being routed from Aleppo proves this.

Beyond the military victory lies a much bigger development. There has been a tectonic shift in global politics. The US and its NATO allies and regional puppets were not only made irrelevant in the struggle to liberate eastern Aleppo but also exposed as the principal backers of terrorists. Woe to those Muslims, who decry the West’s animosity toward them and their faith that is so clearly evident in the Western media every day, yet fall for the same media’s propaganda about the liberation of eastern Aleppo that the corporate Zionist-controlled media dubbed as its “fall.” Are terrorists the legitimate rulers of Syria? If the West really cares about Muslims, why is there no concern expressed for the Palestinians that the Zionists brutalize on a daily basis? Why is there little mention of the suffering, starvation and killing of thousands of Yemeni civilians and why is there total silence about the plight of the Kashmiris that the Hindu occupiers have brutalized for decades?

It is this naive attitude of Muslims that the imperialists and Zionists exploit. It is not difficult to see why the West would indulge in such propaganda. It had to think of a way to camouflage its total defeat in Syria despite backing the terrorists with money, arms, training, and even sending its own mercenaries, 14 of whom were captured by Syria’s Special Forces from a bunker in eastern Aleppo. Ultimately, the Western-backed and Saudi/Qatari financed terrorists were routed completely and their plan for regime change was foiled.

Three players were instrumental in bringing about this outcome: Russia, Islamic Iran, and Turkey. While Russia took the lead, it was Islamic Iran’s principled stand against the terrorists and its willingness to make the requisite sacrifices (as well as those by Hizbullah) that prevented Syria from going down the route of Libya and Iraq. Turkey was brought on board in order to help reduce prolongation of the war. Ankara has close links with many terrorist groups who receive 70% of their weapons and manpower through the Turkish border. Under Russia’s prodding, Ankara has been persuaded to limit, if not stop altogether its support for the terrorists. In return, Russia, Iran, and Syria agreed to allow the terrorists and their families a safe exit out of the city. Further, Turkey can help bring these groups to the negotiating table for a political settlement of the conflict.

The larger picture of the terrorists’ defeat in eastern Aleppo cannot be overemphasized. This is also something the Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov alluded to when he said there was no point in talking to the Americans about peace in Syria because such talks are fruitless. Instead, Russia, Iran, and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a peace deal in Syria after the three countries’ foreign and defence ministers held separate talks in Moscow on December 20. While the foreign ministers adopted a declaration that set out the principles of the agreement, their defence ministers discussed its logistics and how to hold the ceasefire.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s talks with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts led to the drafting of a document called the “Moscow Declaration.” This, it was announced, would revive the moribund peace process. The declaration also backed an expanded ceasefire. “Iran, Russia, and Turkey are ready to facilitate the drafting of an agreement, which is already being negotiated, between the Syrian government and the opposition, and to become its guarantors,” the declaration said.

It would be immediately obvious to those familiar with global affairs that for the first time in modern history, the US and its European allies — primarily Britain, France, and Germany — were pointedly excluded from these deliberations. They have been made irrelevant. This is the new global reality that the Americans tried to camouflage through their vile propaganda. But even in victory, the new emerging power bloc was conciliatory. The three peacemakers “invited all other countries with influence over the situation on the ground to do the same [help get a deal]” in Syria.

It is highly unlikely that those who instigated the war on Syria and have financed the terrorists for nearly six years would want peace, especially now that their plans have been defeated, but the offer to them stands. Their diabolical plots, however, have not ended. It is the dedication of the defenders that has brought about this result. A new reality has dawned in the Muslim East (aka the Middle East) in which the US and its regional puppets have become irrelevant.

While it is too early to talk about peace in Syria, the tide has certainly been turned. Aleppo’s liberation has become the new defining moment in regional politics. The era of US subversions may be coming to an end and with it, the people of the region can begin to arrange their socio-economic and political affairs based on their values and interests rather than serving the interests of the imperialists, Zionists, and their regional puppets.


Article from

Crescent International Vol. 45, No. 11

Rabi' al-Thani 03, 14382017-01-01


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